A shovel is an excavation tool for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or the like. Shovels are extremely common excavation tools that are used extensively in agriculture, construction, and gardening. Typically, a shovel is a hand operable unitary tool consisting of a broad blade made of metal, fixed to a handle of various lengths and types. Because shovels are typically constructed with an electrically conductive metal blade portion that breaks and lifts the ground surface, operation of a shovel poses several inherent risks, some of which are more obvious to the user than others. For example, an obvious risk associated with shovel use relates to the fact that the broad metal blade poses a serious risk of severing a finger or a portion of a foot. Other risks are not as obvious, such as the potential hazard of striking buried electrical cables during excavation. Underground electrical cables are easily mistaken for pipes or tree roots, and pose a hazard for the excavator.
A typical home may have numerous electrical, cable television and/or telephone lines buried underground which extend across the property. Some of these wires, such as cable television or telephone lines, carry very little electrical voltage, while others may carry a significant amount of electrical power. Unfortunately, it is impossible to distinguish between the two by simply observing the appearance of the wire. Currently, the only protection against digging into buried cables is to call the utility company or one of any number of other companies that come out to the digging site and mark where the buried cables are with paint or flags. This process, however, is not entirely accurate and cable placement is often mismarked or cables are missed entirely. Unfortunately, the person excavating is ultimately responsible for any damage caused to the cables during excavation. Whereby, cutting a phone cable may result in the excavator being charged not only with the repair cost of the cable, but also with lost revenue suffered by the utility company. By far the biggest danger results when the excavator severs a high voltage line which may result in serious injury or death.
Electric field detectors are known that detect the electric field strength relative to the user. The electric field detector senses electric field gradients at a distance and can detect energized objects without making direct contact. The electric field detectors are thereby useful for scanning large areas for potential buried electrical hazards. Thus, it is advantageous for an excavator to scan the area where ground breaking is to occur before excavation begins to prevent hazard or injury. However, in addition to the fact that most homeowners do not own electric field detectors, the field detectors do not indicate the precise location or depth of the buried cable. Whereby, a user of such a device would be required to repeatedly stop and check the digging site to determine if he was approaching a cable or diverging from the cable location. This shortcoming makes it unlikely that the excavator would use such a device even if he owned one. Thus, there is need for a hand-operable excavation apparatus, such as a shovel, that will detect stray voltage in proximity to the excavation site and alert the excavator of such to prevent the potential hazards associated with damaging the likes of buried electrical cables. The combination of the shovel and voltage detector should operate in a continuous mode so that each time the shovel is placed within the cavity the voltage detector would indicate to the operator whether he is approaching or diverging from a danger. The shovel should be purpose built to house the voltage detection device, or alternatively, the voltage detection device should be constructed to cooperate specifically with the shovel device.